The firm will instead sell its ClearPoint mortgage unit to
Ocwen Financial Corp., New York-based Gleacher said today in a
statement. The company also posted a loss of $11.5 million from
continuing operations in the fourth quarter of 2012 as the
restructuring took up management’s time.

Stifel Financial Corp., the St. Louis-based brokerage, was
among the companies that bid on all or part of Gleacher, people
with knowledge of the talks said in October. Smaller financial
companies including Gleacher have struggled amid a slump in
trading commissions that pushed brokerages such as WJB Capital
Group Inc. and Ticonderoga Securities LLC to close last year.

Gleacher disclosed its strategic review in August. The firm
began exploring options amid pressure from top shareholder
MatlinPatterson Global Advisers LLC. Eric Gleacher, who resigned
last month, founded Gleacher Partners Inc. in 1990 and before
that led mergers and acquisitions at Lehman Brothers Holdings
Inc. and Morgan Stanley.

Gleacher fell 15 percent to 80 cents at 4:30 p.m. in New
York, giving it a market value of $99.6 million.